A 13-year-old boy in New Zealand swallowed up to 100 high-powered magnets he bought online, with doctors having to remove tissue from his intestines.
The teenager was taken to Tauranga Hospital on New Zealand’s North Island after experiencing four days of abdominal pain.
“He disclosed ingesting approximately 80 to 100 5x2mm high-power (neodymium) magnets about one week prior,” a report by the hospital doctors read, as cited by The Guardian .
The report stated that the magnets had been bought through the Chinese online marketplace Temu .
An X-ray revealed the magnets formed four straight lines inside the boy’s intestines. Doctors said, “these appeared to be in separate parts of bowel adhered together due to magnetic forces.”
The boy required major surgery to remove all the magnets, including part of his bowel. Doctors said the pressure from the magnets caused tissue death in four areas of his small intestine and caecum, part of the large intestine.
Surgeons removed the damaged tissue and retrieved the magnets, and the child was able to go home after eight days in the hospital.
Doctors warned that surgery to remove ingested magnets can cause long-term complications, including bowel obstruction, abdominal hernias, and chronic pain.
New Zealand banned the sale of small, high-powered magnets in 2013, after the government warned that children could suffer serious injuries if they swallowed them, either out of curiosity or while using them as “mock jewellery.”
The authors of the New Zealand Medical Journal report noted that enforcing the long-standing ban remains difficult, as the magnets are still readily available on online marketplaces.
“While these laws can be enforced locally, it is more difficult to regulate products supplied by overseas merchants on large-scale online marketplaces,” the authors said in the journal.
“These platforms are easily accessible especially by children, with purchases being inexpensive and not always requiring age verification,” they added.
Temu stated that it has not yet been able to verify whether the magnets involved were bought through its platform.
“We are sorry to learn about the reported incident and wish the boy a full and speedy recovery,” a Temu spokesperson was quoted as saying by NBC .
The teenager was taken to Tauranga Hospital on New Zealand’s North Island after experiencing four days of abdominal pain.
“He disclosed ingesting approximately 80 to 100 5x2mm high-power (neodymium) magnets about one week prior,” a report by the hospital doctors read, as cited by The Guardian .
The report stated that the magnets had been bought through the Chinese online marketplace Temu .
An X-ray revealed the magnets formed four straight lines inside the boy’s intestines. Doctors said, “these appeared to be in separate parts of bowel adhered together due to magnetic forces.”
The boy required major surgery to remove all the magnets, including part of his bowel. Doctors said the pressure from the magnets caused tissue death in four areas of his small intestine and caecum, part of the large intestine.
Surgeons removed the damaged tissue and retrieved the magnets, and the child was able to go home after eight days in the hospital.
Doctors warned that surgery to remove ingested magnets can cause long-term complications, including bowel obstruction, abdominal hernias, and chronic pain.
New Zealand banned the sale of small, high-powered magnets in 2013, after the government warned that children could suffer serious injuries if they swallowed them, either out of curiosity or while using them as “mock jewellery.”
The authors of the New Zealand Medical Journal report noted that enforcing the long-standing ban remains difficult, as the magnets are still readily available on online marketplaces.
“While these laws can be enforced locally, it is more difficult to regulate products supplied by overseas merchants on large-scale online marketplaces,” the authors said in the journal.
“These platforms are easily accessible especially by children, with purchases being inexpensive and not always requiring age verification,” they added.
Temu stated that it has not yet been able to verify whether the magnets involved were bought through its platform.
“We are sorry to learn about the reported incident and wish the boy a full and speedy recovery,” a Temu spokesperson was quoted as saying by NBC .
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